How to Recover your Hotmail account

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Chris Stetkiewicz writes on the Security Tips & Talk Blog:

We recently received this email:

“My Hotmail account was hacked and taken over by the classic ‘I'm in London and I’ve been mugged’ scam. It appears that the hacker has changed the basic verification information on the account and every attempt to reset the password throws me into an endless loop.

How to get my account back?”

It sounds like the author of this email has already tried to reset the password on the account manually. If you’re locked out of your account, the first thing you should always do is attempt to reset your password. Here are a few ways you can do this:

  • On the Windows Live Hotmail website sign-in page, click Forgot your password?
  • Go to the reset your password link.

First, enter your Windows ID. Then, in the Windows Live ID text box, enter the characters you see in the picture, to prove that you’re not a machine.

Next, you’ll see a screen that offers you options to recover your password using an alternate email address or a mobile phone. If you haven’t associated your account with these alternatives, choose customer support.